Fringe - The Box, 3.02

I was enamored of Fringe last season. I watched Brown Betty twice, Jacksonville three times, and the Over There finale parts 1 and 2 a couple more times than that. The show was just an amalgam of everything I loved about the science fiction genre: alternate universes, the FBI checking out weird science cases, a mad scientist, the unexplained, a fantastically creepy score, themes like morality and reality, monsters and mutants, and, as a bonus, gruesome deaths each episode. Awesome.

Summer came and went, and by the time fall shows started premiering, I found I didn't care as much about Fringe Division. But last week's episode and this week's installment won me over yet again.

Olivia is reserved. She's tough. She's personable but not outgoing. Alt-Olivia is different in many ways, and Anna Torv affects her effortlessly. She is completely believable as both characters. For once, I was captivated by the story and didn't even think about Anna Torv the actor as Olivia and Alt-Olivia; it was just the two very different characters struggling in their new realities. Superb nuanced acting, without so much as a wardrobe or hairstyle change. The way she runs her tongue over her teeth the way Olivia wouldn't, the way she carries herself distinctly as either character, is fantastic.

More winning moments:

• John Noble as the Secretary and chunks-of-his-brain-missing Walter Bishop.
• Michael Giacchino. Amazing work all the time.
• The silence scene! Excellent! That dude's head exploding! I jumped and said Oh Fuck and then laughed. Sci fi has made me a sick person.

ETA: I called the deaf twist at the beginning of the episode. Strange things were affecting everyone except one person, so the odd one out had to be different in some way. I guessed deaf, and I was right. This has probably happened before in the X-Files. Sci fi tropes are becoming second nature. Cool.

Also, the T never moves that fast. And, because I'm a romance junkie, I'm loving the development of the Alt-Olivia and Peter relationship. Twisted and complicated, just the way I like it.